1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a system of two or more imaging appliances linked together to form a cooperative system, and more specifically, to an address book for each linked imaging appliance.
2. Description of Related Art
In the past, imaging devices have been connected together for specific purposes. Scanners and printers have long had the capability to connect with a personal computer (xe2x80x9cPCxe2x80x9d) for purposes of receiving and printing images. These connections have typically been made with a cable, such as a parallel port, SCSI (Small Computer System Interface), or USB (Universal Serial Bus). Portable digital imaging devices, such as digital cameras and hand scanners (e.g., Hewlett-Packard""s Capshare device), have had the capability to communicate image files via an wireless link, such as a IrDA (Infrared Data Association) link. Moreover, with the advance of digital cameras it is not uncommon to find cameras using a wide variety of wired communication links such as standard RS-232 serial links, USB (universal serial bus), IEEE-1394, a.k.a. xe2x80x9cfirewirexe2x80x9d (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers), and even S-video. However, most of these communications links were basically designed to allow the transfer of digital image files between two devices.
Multiple cameras have been linked together in the past to take panoramic and three-dimensional (xe2x80x9c3Dxe2x80x9d) photographs. In the case of panoramic photography, multiple cameras may be distributed around an object to each take a single photograph that is later combined into a single panoramic photograph. In the case of 3D photographs, two cameras are situated a few inches apart to duplicate the spacing of our eyes which provides stereo or 3D vision. The cameras are typically linked together with a common cable release. The common cable release makes it possible to simultaneously fire any set of cameras that have a provision for a mechanical cable release to be screwed in. Thus, although systems of cameras have been designed to operate together, the primitive techniques used to join them together into a working system is very limited in it use and cumbersome to configure.
Therefore, it is desirable to obtain a dynamically configurable system of imaging devices capable of cooperating together for a variety of purposes.
The invention may be implemented as a method of addressing an imaging appliance. The method may include receiving a network address and a corresponding identity image from at least one imaging appliance; displaying at least one identity image, each identity image corresponding to one imaging appliance; and selecting an imaging appliance to perform an operation therewith by selecting from said at least one identity image. The identity image may be a pictorial representation of a user, the imaging appliance or the location of the imaging appliance. The identity image may include an alpha/numeric string.
The invention may also be viewed as an imaging appliance, having a communications unit configured to receive a network address and a corresponding identity image from at least one remote imaging appliance; a display unit configured to display at least one identity image received by the communications unit, each identity image corresponding to an address of one remote imaging appliance; and a user interface configured to receive a user selection based on said at least one identity image displayed. The remote imaging appliance may be addressed with the user selection.
The invention may also be viewed as a family of imaging appliances, each having a user interface for selecting another imaging appliance via the identify image.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent to one or ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is intended that all such features and advantages be included herein within the scope of the invention and protected by the claims.